Terrible Dreams

I had perhaps the worst nightmare in my entire life due to the fact that it was to me , as realistic as any experience .

It starts I am standing in a line in and underground railway like the public transportation you see in the movies in NY or other eastern cities . There are 10 people or so in front of me and several behind and identical lines on both sides , it seems we are waiting to buy our tickets for the Tram or whatever they are called .

To my left are perhaps a dozen lines and a set of stairs going up to the street or down to where we are , divided by a handrail in the middle that is maybe 80-100 feet away .

I hear a women scream for help to my left and I see her running down the stairs towards me still screaming . As she enters the ticket area she disappears trying to push her way through the lines as I can hear people cursing her for running into them and see the lines ripple as she makes her way . I then see a man running down the stairs with a very long kitchen style knife in his right hand and I turn to my left facing toward them .
As the woman progresses she is having to zig zag going for openings between people to stay ahead of the man yet apparently the people in line see he has a knife and are trying to move out of his way so he is closing fast but with people moving back and forth he is popping in and out of my view .
As she gets two lines away she is now off to my right by about 3 people and he is heading almost straight at me with his knife about chest high , the two people directly in front of me part and the man is right there as he is coming through the previous line as she is about to come through the last line between her and I .

I pull my CCW weapon and raise it and line up my sights on his chest without a warning as I don't want to cause anyone to panic and move into my way , I press the trigger and as I do the woman darts between the two people who parted giving me a shot at him and I shoot her in her chest .

I woke up at that point in a cold sweat .

The worst part is I don't think it takes much of an imagination to see how this is all to possible in the real world .

How would you think it would best be handled to avoid a tragedy of shooting the wrong person , either her or a bystander ?

Be glad the gun fired. I have similar dreams about twice a year, but in mine, no matter what I do, I never can physically get the trigger pulled. Not that I freeze up, but the trigger is frozen and now matter how much force I use, it won't work. It is always very clear which weapon it is and is always different, from pistols to shotguns to rifles. I always have to take that weapon out very soon thereafter to shoot it to keep my confidence up that it will actually shoot. I wish someone could tell me what that means.

"From this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, and the gentleman now a bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhood cheap" -- Henry V

Well the best way I can come up with off the top of my head based on how I understand the situation (she is still in lead and both headed directly at you and he isnt interested in anyone but her) would be to have the weapon drawn but at the side and appear nonconfrontational, if needed adjust position to be in the path and let her past then as he comes through a distracted and running man is easy to trip, trip him with a kick to the ankle and a shove from the empty hand. Once he hits the floor the handgun can be brought to bear and MAY be able to end the situation without fireing a shot and if you DO need to fire at this point, the ground is all thats behind him in case of over penetration and no one and nothing likely to pass between you and the threat.

Thats the first thing that comes to my mind but like I say, thats ASSUMEING the situation is just as I understand it and that it dose inded seem plausable to handle it in this manner. No blanket anwser other than to be sure of the bullets path (includeing after exiting target or in case of a miss) and the balance between benifit and risk before pulling the trigger.

Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect aplause, he noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self made laws....

Well the best way I can come up with off the top of my head based on how I understand the situation (she is still in lead and both headed directly at you and he isnt interested in anyone but her) would be to have the weapon drawn but at the side and appear nonconfrontational, if needed adjust position to be in the path and let her past then as he comes through a distracted and running man is easy to trip, trip him with a kick to the ankle and a shove from the empty hand. Once he hits the floor the handgun can be brought to bear and MAY be able to end the situation without fireing a shot and if you DO need to fire at this point, the ground is all thats behind him in case of over penetration and no one and nothing likely to pass between you and the threat.

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IIRC I read somewhere that an average man can travel 21 feet before most people can draw and fire a pistol. Never ever let someone get that close to you with a knife. I've seen knife cuts and they are not pretty. If I thought I had the shot I'd take it, but thats just me.

OGM

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Actualy its that a person with a knife can close and kill you with the knife if you shoot them inside of 21 feet. In the senario mentioned though, as I understand it, the man with the knife is oblivious to you and you are not the target, its in a crowded and enclosed space where a shot fired is VERY likely to strike a bystander and IF he is oblivious to you then he can be easily put to the ground as he is running past and from the ground would be less able to get up and get to you to stab or slash you then from a range where he could be engaged with a firearm in this situation. The only shot that could be reasonably likely to NOT hit anyone other than the intended target would be shooting down into him.

Ive also seen several times what a knife can do and even got the scars from a couple of encounters when I got to feel what one will do but if he is not slashing at bystanders then you likely wont exist in his mind untill you engage him and so he will be easy to take down. IF a person has practiced it it is also generaly not that dificult to take a person with a knife out empty handed since aside from other factors, an armed person tends to ALWAYS attack with their weapon and not with other assets. Basicly a person with a knife in their right hand isnt LIKELY to try to punch you with their left hand or kick you they are going to try to stab or slash you unless they are trying to grab you so there is LESS that you have to deal with than with an unarmed person, it just hurts more if you make a mistake, but then too their own weapon can be turned against them with some fairly basic technices.

Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect aplause, he noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self made laws....

Actualy its that a person with a knife can close and kill you with the knife if you shoot them inside of 21 feet.

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Personally I've never seen anyone travel that far after taking a shot, but I was trained to do a double tap to center mass. Weather I'm the target or not I'm going to neutralize the target at all costs, but that is how was trained and it got me through alot. Personally I would never let someone run towards me with a knife and not try to stop him before he got there, weather I'm his target or not.

We may just have to agree to disagree on this one.

OGM

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Be glad the gun fired. I have similar dreams about twice a year, but in mine, no matter what I do, I never can physically get the trigger pulled. Not that I freeze up, but the trigger is frozen and now matter how much force I use, it won't work. It is always very clear which weapon it is and is always different, from pistols to shotguns to rifles. I always have to take that weapon out very soon thereafter to shoot it to keep my confidence up that it will actually shoot. I wish someone could tell me what that means.

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Same problem here. Either my firearm does not function, or the perp/creature will not die no matter how many times it is shot. To take a line from The Eagles "they stabbed it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast."

Dont get me wrong, remove the bystanders and I would take the shot, but I figure with the crowd if you take the shot you are just as likely to kill a bystander as the target even assumeing you hit the target due to pass through shots. I kind of figure I couldnt just stand by and do nothing but at the same time if I wasnt the target then I couldnt see takeing out other inocents that were not previously in imediate danger to try and get the BG.

I will try to find the link to an excelent article I had on the 21 foot rule and why it was to close but basicly they showed all the stats and info and where a person still has controle of their body for a few seconds after their heart is splatered due to the blood already in the brain and muscels so if they are chargeing and shot they can still cover up to like 70 feet pretty easy and stab you (assumeing you dont move or do anything after shooting them in the heart) before they fall dead.

Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect aplause, he noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self made laws....

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis